The Sagas of the Icelanders

by Smilely, Jane

  Once King Hakon ruled in peace, he sought to re-establish his rule throughout the lands that his father had reigned over. King Hakon sent a band of twelve men east to Varmland. After collecting tribute from the earl, they were going through Eideskog Forest when they were ambushed by robbers and all were killed. The same happened to other men that King Hakon sent to Varmland: they were killed and the money went missing. Some people claimed Earl Arnvid was sending his own men to ambush the king’s men and bring the money back to him.

  So while King Hakon was staying in Trondheim, he sent a third party there. They were told to go east to Vik and see Thorstein, Thora’s son, with an ultimatum ordering him to go to Varmland and collect the tribute for the king, or be banished from the realm. By then, the king had heard that Thorstein’s uncle Arinbjorn was in Denmark with Eirik’s sons, and also that they had a large army there and went raiding during the summers. King Hakon did not feel that any of them could be trusted, because he expected hostilities from Eirik’s sons if they ever acquired a large enough force to rebel against him. He dealt out the same treatment to all Arinbjorn’s kinsmen, relatives by marriage and friends: he banished many of them and issued others with ultimatums. Thorstein was told this distrust was the main reason that the king issued the ultimatum to him.

  The messenger who brought the command from the king was a widely travelled man. He had spent long periods in Denmark and Sweden and was familiar with the routes and knew all about the people there too. He had also been all over Norway. When he had presented Thorstein Thomson with the order, Thorstein told Egil about the messengers’ errand and asked how he should respond.

  ‘It seems obvious to me that the king wants you out of the country like the rest of Arinbjorn’s family,’ said Egil. ‘It’s a dangerous mission for a man of your standing. I advise you to call the king’s messengers in to talk to you, and I’ll be there when you do. Then we’ll see what happens.’

  Thorstein did as Egil said, and brought them in to talk to him. The messengers gave a straight account of the reason for their visit, and of the king’s order that Thorstein should either undertake the journey or else be made an outlaw.

  Then Egil said, ‘I can see what lies behind this business of yours. If Thorstein doesn’t want to go on the mission, you will go and collect the tribute yourselves.’

  The messengers said that he had guessed correctly.

  ‘Thorstein will not be going on this mission,’ Egil declared. ‘A man of his standing is not obliged to undertake such a paltry voyage. On the other hand, Thorstein will do his duty to follow the king in Norway and abroad if the king demands it of him. If you want to take some of Thorstein’s men with you on the mission he will grant you that, along with anything you ask him to provide for the journey.’

  The messengers discussed the offer among themselves and agreed to it, provided Egil would join them.

  ‘The king hates him and would be pleased with our mission if we could arrange to have him killed,’ they said. ‘Then he can drive Thorstein out of the country too if he sees fit.’

  Then they told Thorstein that they wouldn’t mind the plan if Egil went with them and Thorstein stayed behind.

  ‘Let it be done, then,’ said Egil. ‘I will take Thorstein’s place on the mission. How many men do you think you need to take from here?’

  ‘There are eight of us,’ they said, ‘and we would like four more from here, to make twelve.’

  Egil said this would be done.

  Onund Sjoni and some of Egil’s men had gone down to the sea to see about their ships and the cargo they had put in storage that autumn, and had not returned yet. Egil thought that was a great setback, because the king’s men were impatient about going on the journey and did not want to wait.

  72 Egil and the three men who were going with him made preparations for their journey. They took horses and sleighs, and so did the king’s men. There had been heavy snows which had altered all the routes that could be taken. Once they were ready they set off and drove inland. On their way to Eid it snowed so much one night that it was impossible to make out where the trails were. The next day they made slow progress, because they kept sinking into the snowdrifts whenever they left the trail.

  In the course of the day they paused to rest their horses near a wooded ridge.

  ‘The trail forks here,’ they told Egil. ‘The farmer who lives beneath the ridge is named Arnald and he’s a friend of ours. We will go and stay with him, and you should go up on the ridge. When you get there you’ll soon see a big farm where you are sure of a place to stay. A very wealthy man called Armod Beard lives there. We will meet up again early tomorrow morning and go to Eideskog in the evening. A farmer lives there, a good man called Thorfinn.’

  Then they parted. Egil and his men went up on the ridge. As for the king’s men, as soon as they were out of Egil’s sight, they put on skis they had brought with them, then went back as fast as they could. Travelling day and night, they went to Oppland and north from there across Dovrefjell, and did not stop until they reached King Hakon and told him about how things had gone.

  Egil and his companions crossed the ridge that evening and lost their way at once in the heavy snows. Their horses repeatedly sank down into drifts and had to be pulled out. There were rocky slopes and brushwood which were difficult to negotiate. The horses caused them a long delay, and it was extremely hard going on foot too. Exhausted, they made their way down from the ridge at last, saw a big farm and headed for it.

  When they arrived in the fields in front of the farmhouse, they saw Armod and his men standing outside. They exchanged greetings and asked each other if there was any news. When he heard that these men were envoys from the king, Armod invited them to stay, and they accepted. Armod’s farmhands took their horses and baggage, while the farmer invited Egil and his men to go in to the main room, and they did so. Armod gave Egil a seat on the lower bench and seated his companions farther down the table. They spoke at length about their tough journey that night, and the people who lived there were astonished that they had made it at all, saying that the ridge could not even be crossed when it was free of snow.

  ‘Don’t you think the best thing I can provide you with now is to lay the tables and give you a meal for the night, and then you can go to bed?’ asked Armod. ‘You’ll get the best night’s rest that way.’

  ‘That would be fine,’ said Egil.

  Then Armod had the tables laid for them, and large bowls of curds were brought in. Armod gave the impression he was upset at not having any ale to serve them. Because Egil and his men were so thirsty after their ordeal, they picked up the bowls and gulped down the curds, Egil much more than the others. No other food was served.

  Many people were living and working on the farm. The farmer’s wife sat on a cross-bench with some other women beside her. Their daughter, aged ten or eleven, was on the floor. The wife called over to her, and whispered in her ear. Then the girl went round to where Egil was sitting at the table. She spoke this verse:

  44. My mother sent me

  to talk to you

  and bring Egil word

  to keep on his guard.

  The maid of the ale-horn

  said treat your stomach

  as if you expect

  to be served something better.

  Armod slapped the girl and told her to keep quiet – ‘You’re always saying things at the worst of times.’

  The girl went away, and Egil put down the bowl of curds, which was almost empty. Then the bowls were taken away and the men of the household went to their seats as well. Tables were laid across the whole room and the food was spread out on them. Choice food was served to Egil and his men, and everyone else.

  Then the ale was brought in, an exceptionally strong brew. Each man was given a horn to drink from, and the host made a special point of letting Egil and his men drink as much as possible. Egil drank incessantly for a long time at first, and when his companions became incapacitated, he drank what they cou
ld not finish as well. This continued until the tables were cleared.

  Everyone became very drunk, and for every toast that Armod drank he said, ‘I drink this to your health, Egil.’

  The men of the household drank to his companions’ health, with the same words. A man was given the job of keeping Egil and his companions served with one toast after another, and he urged them to drink it up at once. Egil told his companions they should not drink any more, and he drank theirs for them too when there was no way to avoid it.

  Egil started to feel that he would not be able to go on like this. He stood up and walked across the floor to where Armod was sitting, seized him by the shoulders and thrust him up against a wall-post. Then Egil spewed a torrent of vomit that gushed all over Armod’s face, filling his eyes and nostrils and mouth and pouring down his beard and chest. Armod was close to choking, and when he managed to let out his breath, a jet of vomit gushed out with it. All Armod’s men who were there said that Egil had done a base and despicable deed by not going outside when he needed to vomit, but had made a spectacle of himself in the drinking-room instead.

  Egil said, ‘Don’t blame me for following the master of the house’s example. He’s spewing his guts up just as much as I am.’

  Then Egil went over to his place, sat down and asked for a drink. Then he blared out this verse:

  45. With my cheeks’ swell I repaid

  the compliment you served.

  I had heavy cause to venture

  my steps across the floor.

  Many guests thank favours

  with sweeter-flavoured rewards.

  But we meet rarely. Armod’s beard

  is awash with dregs of ale.

  Armod leapt to his feet and ran out, but Egil asked for more to drink. The farmer’s wife told the man who had been pouring out the drinks all evening to keep serving them so they would not lack drink for as long as they wanted. He took a large horn, filled it and carried it over to Egil. Egil quaffed the drink, then spoke this verse:

  46. Drink every toast down,

  though the rider of the waves rider of the waves: seaman

  brings brimful horns often

  to the shaper of verse.

  I will leave no drop

  of malt-sea, even if the maker malt-sea: ale

  of sword-play brings me

  horns until morning.

  Egil went on drinking for some time, polishing off every drinking-horn that was brought to him, but there was not much merry-making in the room even though a few other men were still drinking. Then Egil and his companions stood up and took their weapons from the wall where they had hung them, went to the barn where their horses were being kept, lay down in the straw and slept the night there.

  73 Egil got up at daybreak the next morning. He and his companions prepared to leave, and when they were ready they went back to the farm to look for Armod. When they found the chamber where Armod was sleeping with his wife and daughter, Egil flung the door open and went over to his bed. He drew his sword, seized Armod by the beard with his other hand and tugged him over to the side of the bed. Armod’s wife and daughter both jumped up and implored Egil not to kill him.

  Egil said he would spare him for their sake – ‘That is the fair thing to do, but if he were worth the bother I would kill him.’

  Then he spoke a verse:

  47. His wife and daughter aid

  the foul-mouthed man

  who twines arms with rings. twines arms with rings: i.e. is generous; a conventional image used ironically

  I do not fear this battle-maker.

  You will not feel deserving

  of such dealings from the poet

  for that drink you served him.

  Let us be gone far on our way.

  Then Egil cut off Amrod’s beard close to the chin, and gouged out one of his eyes with his finger, leaving it hanging on his cheek. After that, Egil went off to his companions.

  They went on their way and arrived at Thorfinn’s farm early in the morning. He lived in Eideskog. Egil and his men asked for breakfast and somewhere to rest their horses. Thorfinn granted them that, and Egil and his men went into the main room.

  Egil asked Thorfinn if he knew anything about his companions.

  ‘We arranged to meet here,’ he said.

  Thorfinn replied, ‘Six men came by here some time before daybreak, all heavily armed.’

  One of Thorfinn’s farmhands added, ‘I went out to gather timber in the night and came across six men who were going somewhere. They were Armod’s farmhands and it was well before daybreak. I don’t know whether these were the same six you mentioned.’

  Thorfinn said the men he met had been travelling later than when the farmhand brought the cartload of timber back.

  When Egil and his men sat down to eat, he saw a sick woman lying on the cross-bench. Egil asked Thorfinn who the woman was and why she was in such a poor state.

  Thorfinn said she was his daughter Helga – ‘She has been weak for a long time.’

  She was suffering from a wasting sickness, and could not sleep at night because of some kind of a delirium.

  ‘Has anyone tried to find out the cause of her illness?’ Egil asked.

  ‘We had some runes carved,’ said Thorfinn. ‘The son of a farmer who lives close by did it, and since then she’s been much worse. Do you know any remedy, Egil?’

  Egil said, ‘It might not do any harm if I try something.’

  When Egil had eaten his fill he went to where the woman was lying and spoke to her. He ordered them to lift her out of her bed and place clean sheets underneath her, and this was done. Then he examined the bed she had been lying in, and found a whalebone with runes carved on it. After reading the runes, Egil shaved them off and scraped them into the fire. He burned the whalebone and had her bedclothes aired. Then Egil spoke a verse:

  48. No man should carve runes

  unless he can read them well;

  many a man goes astray

  around those dark letters.

  On the whalebone I saw

  ten secret letters carved,

  from them the linden tree linden tree: woman

  took her long harm.

  Egil cut some runes and placed them under the pillow of the bed where she was lying. She felt as if she were waking from a deep sleep, and she said she was well again, but still very weak. But her father and mother were overjoyed. Thorfinn offered Egil all the provisions he thought he needed.

  74 Egil told his companions that he wanted to continue on his journey and not wait any longer. Thorfinn offered to accompany Egil through the forest with his son Helgi, who was a brave lad. They told him they were certain Armod Beard had sent the six men to waylay them in the forest, and that there were likely to be more ambushes if the first failed. Thorfinn and three others offered to go with them. Then Egil spoke a verse:

  49. You know if I take four men,

  six will not manage to swap

  bloody blows of the battle-god’s

  shield-piercer with me. battle-god’s shield-piercer: sword

  And if I have eight men,

  no twelve will strike fear

  into the dark-browed man’s heart

  when the swords clash.

  Thorfinn and his men decided to go to the forest with Egil, so there were eight of them in all. When they came to the ambush they saw some people there. Armod’s six farmhands were lying in ambush, but when they saw eight men approaching, they did not think they had any chance against them, and stole away to the forest. When Egil and his men reached the spot where the spies had been, they could tell that danger was lurking. Egil told Thorfinn and his men to go back, but they wanted to go on. Egil refused and insisted that they go home, so in the end they did. They set off for home again, while Egil and his three men continued their journey.

  As the day wore on, Egil and his men noticed six men in the woods, and guessed that they were Armod’s farmhands. The spies jumped out and attacked them, but Egil fought
back. When they clashed, Egil killed two of the attackers and the rest ran back into the forest.

  Then Egil and his men proceeded on their way, and nothing else happened until they emerged from the forest and spent the night on a nearby farm with a farmer named Alf, who was nicknamed Alf the Wealthy. He was an old, wealthy man, but so unsociable that he could only bear having a few people working for him on the farm. Egil received a warm welcome there, and Alf was talkative to him. Egil asked him many things, and he answered them all. They talked mainly about the earl and the envoys of the king of Norway who had gone out to the east to collect tribute. From what Alf said, he was no friend of the earl’s.

  75 Early the next morning, Egil and his companions prepared to leave. As a parting gift, Egil gave Alf a fur coat which he accepted thankfully.

  ‘I can have it made into a fur cape,’ he said, as he invited Egil to visit him again on his way back.

  They parted good friends, and Egil continued on his way. In the evening he reached Earl Arnvid’s company and was well received there. He and his companions were given seats next to the head of the table.

  After staying there for the night, Egil and his companions told the earl of their errand and the king’s message, saying he wanted all the tribute from Varmland that had gone unpaid since Arnvid was appointed to rule there.